A simple village priest. Гиревик and Persian meel enthusiast. 2% Jew. Trying to love my enemies and other hard stuff.
Nov 4 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Today's Gospel reading, the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus, it critical to understanding why Marxism is antithetical to Christianity. Christ preached Divine Justice, where God rights the wrongs & repairs what is broken in this life. Marx taught a human solution based on...🧵
...conflict. He sought the destruction of the Bourgeoisie rather than its conversion. He wanted to destroy the "class enemy" rather than reconciliation. Yet, so many of the Bourgeois think they could be "redeemed" if they identified with his message. That's why they followed 🧵
Oct 31 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
So, for those having trouble digesting why there's a collective 🤮 in the Orthodox world in reaction to the RCC's cartoon caper, here's my 🔥 take: 1) Orthodox take religion seriously. Very seriously. We can be light hearted, but never about Church matters. We light candles...🧵
and lamps (not loafers). 2) Any RCC yearning for union with the O better get used to us being serious. We are not amused. Ever. 3) We take "art" seriously, particularly when it comes to portraying humans. 4) The Church does NOT engage in marketing. We evangelize.🧵
Oct 24 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I learned the hard way (which also means I'm still learning) that if you want to understand the "phronema" of the Church, or Patristics in general, you really need to do a lot of studying in various topics seemingly unrelated to Christianity, but vital to actually "getting it"🧵
Obviously, Greek & Roman cultures are where most of the focus is, but there are some essentials aside from just basic history. Here's a partially comprehensive list 😉:
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Oct 23 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
If you start searching through Patristic literature, there's not a lot of detailed talk about sex as a singular topic. That's because sex wasn't seen as a psychological topic as it is today. Sex was seen as one of several "physical appetites" along with food & sensual luxury🧵
Sex was connected with food, drink, soft clothes, pleasant aromas. You "reclined" at table, & the connection to sex was right there. The "orgy" was a ritual meal. If you were excessive in this regard, you were considered *malakos*, soft or effeminate🧵
Oct 3 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A warning to men considering ordination, but who have plans to do some great & wonderful other thing than parish ministry: you're asking for trouble, and will likely get a large helping of it. Hot. Served up fast.🧵
Bishops only care about parishes, because that's their primary responsibility & biggest source of headaches. They may genuinely have other interests that even coincide with yours, but at the end of the day, he's got parishes to fill. And, if you fit, he cram you in there...🧵
Sep 19 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
For those of you wondering, abortion is a *Christological* issue for Christians. It's not up for debate. The question is simple: 'what' was conceived in the Virgin Mary? If the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, would there be... 🧵
a conception that was not both Divine and Human from the start?
There can be no separation of the Divinity & the humanity in Jesus Christ. For us, Jesus' humanity had to always be complete, just as His Divinity. The Divine could not be joined to a "prehuman" any more than 🧵
Sep 6 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
One of the keys to inner peace & spiritual growth is pragmatism, as opposed to idealism. The pragmatist seeks the truth in things of the present. The idealist seeks perfection in the future by criticizing the present. This critical approach leads to constant dissatisfaction. 🧵
If you are constantly dissatisfied, you cannot be happy. Everything falls short of the ideal. Religious people often start off as idealists. They yearn for the perfect (God), but they are overwhelmed by the imperfect in themselves and the world (aka sin).🧵
Aug 31 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
You may be wondering why the elite seem to want you to be debauched & perverse. It is obviously for control purposes, at least in the beginning. Then, once necessary productivity drops dangerously low, they'll advocate for a new moral reform (see USSR for details)...🧵
The reason for the necessity of perversion is based on Plato's (it's in the OT, where the concept originated) three 'levels' of human appetites. It starts with physical appetites: food, sex, sensual pleasures. Next is the "psychological" or "irascible" appetites: honor, beauty🧵
Aug 17 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
So, now that the dust has settled from my last thread, I want to make some further points about boredom, academia, pastoral ministry, and "intelligent" clergy. Here's your trigger warning: if you didn't like what I said before, you'll probably hate this as well. So, let's go...🧵
My "awakening" to this problem started in seminary. After a complex lecture from a prof, one of my classmates (a good guy) dared to ask the prof (BTW who I liked a lot) "how do we teach this in the parish?" It was a genuine & important question. The prof freaked out in rage...🧵
Aug 16 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
One of the reasons why Christianity in the West is dying is because of over-educated clergy. Yes, I said "over-educated," as in "too much," "excessive," & "unnecessarily." Stop screaming at your phone (i can't hear you anyway) & keep reading. I have a point to make.🧵
In the Orthodox world, seminary is a "high school" experience, out of which flows a steady stream of young men with a basic theological education (for a typical high school intellect) that will eventually get married & be ordained. A few will be selected for the "academy".🧵
Mar 2 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Americans, in general, are clueless about subtlety & shades of meaning. Things are reduced to their material expression with nothing of significance beyond it. Its baked in: you can take loads of college courses on art appreciation & it won't impact your dorm poster collection 🧵
I saw this in my travels as a young man, how Americans like me saw the beauty of great churches in EU without understanding their actual meaning. The world is "flat"... there's nothing underneath. When we seek depth, we usually settle for emotional, hence sensory, experiences 🧵
Aug 29, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Time to say something unpopular: clergy & laity shouldn't fraternize. Ever. One unguarded moment can lead to a complaint, & it all goes down from there. Laity, don't ask your priest to 'pal around'. You are tempting him to lower his guard & open him to attack.
Yes, clergy are often lonely. Many struggle with a sense of isolation & even depression. Having informal relationships seems like a respite from the burden. But with laity, no. People will ALWAYS hold you to a higher standard than even they can keep. Then off goes the email.
Aug 17, 2023 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Things I learned from listening to Solzhenitsyn: 1) use every legal means available to resist evil. Evil tries to hide behind rules, but is always defeated by its own rules. 2) whenever possible, don't follow the rules. Evil makes the rules so it can win.
3) make the system work harder to accomplish its goals. Complicate things, & use time against evil, because evil is impatient. And lazy. 4) evil never tells the truth, so you can never bargain with it. It is always lying. Hope is a weapon for evil.